GAA hyperbole unlikely to tarnish final destined for collective memory

Sport is a soft touch for mythologising, Gaelic games among the softest and within GAA hurling to a greater degree than football. It’s a frequently heard complaint among big ball followers that their game’s pundits bitch and complain about it whereas the hurling equivalents are on constant celebration watch.

Thus, foul play can be overlooked – and on occasion, applauded – and with the least encouragement, matches become classics and forwarded for posterity’s attention.

A good football match can turn into a witch-hunt for who was to blame on the losing team, whereas a good hurling contest can prompt such questions as: “Was that the best provincial quarter-final replay, ever?”

For the interested GAA follower a little of both approaches probably works best. The rigour of football analysis is more satisfying but hurling pundits’ pride in the game and enthusiasm can be infectious.

Even so, there are concrete facts about matches that it’s possible for statistics and data to provide and other more elusive aspects, such as atmosphere and excitement. Looking at these as dispassionately as possible it’s difficult not to endorse the immediate reaction to Sunday’s Tipperary-Kilkenny All-Ireland – that it was as good a final as anyone could have seen.

I couldn't tell you whether it was the best All-Ireland final to date. No-one can have a valid opinion on that without being the best part of 150-years-old, which although I feel it at times, I'm not. But the figures establish a good prima facie case.

It's been pointed out that the aggregate score of 1-28 to 3-22 was the highest since the days of the 80-minute finals but although the total between Cork and Wexford in 1970 was two greater, 6-21 to 5-10, the number of actual scores, 42, lagged behind Sunday's 54. Had the weekend's final had an additional 10 minutes to play out it would virtually certainly ended up as the highest-scoring ever.

It was only the second All-Ireland final in which both teams scored more than 20 points – a benchmark that had been set and reached by only 14 previous All-Ireland finalists to date; the first five years ago also featured Kilkenny and Tipperary.

Scoring isn’t everything in a match and turkey shoots can be dull affairs.

Yet it would be very hard to sustain the case that the defending was faulty, as none of the backs had out-and-out poor matches – that is contests in which they were unambiguously bettered by their opponents. Some corroborating evidence comes from the replacements: of the eight substitutions made – four on each side – just one was a defender, Joey Holden, whose replacement was probably as much to do with giving Pádraig Walsh a run as addressing a crisis, remarkable in such a high-scoring match.

It was reminiscent in a way of the 2008 final when Kilkenny annihilated Waterford and set a record score for an All-Ireland of 3-30. As their opponents had been overwhelmed that day, Kilkenny were almost playing against themselves and didn't hit a wide until the second half.

On Sunday, however, there were two teams playing to an extraordinary standard. Kilkenny hit six wides in the first half, one of which wasn’t a shot at a score and none in the second half. Tipp’s comparative figures were one and three – one of which was an overhit pass.

That adds up to eight wides all afternoon – against 54 scores. In the 11th minute, Tipperary’s Noel McGrath hit a shot off target. It was the only time all afternoon that the umpires beneath Hill 16 had to wave their arms to signal a wide.

TJ Reid did drop a long-range free in the second half into Darren Gleeson's hands and the same player surprisingly hit the post in the 61st minute with what for him was a straightforward free, but the ball rebounded into play and the ubiquitous Richie Hogan pointed.

There were some flaws in the match. The teams gave the ball away on occasion, probably more so in Tipp’s case, but when you’re playing a high-tempo game and looking to put the pass quickly into a supporting player in a sliver of space, execution won’t always be perfect.

The rash of inaccurate passing from both sides just before half-time could be down to fatigue at the end of a breath-taking 35 minutes.

Both counties could have had more goals but on two occasions Gleeson made good interventions for Tipperary, whereas his Kilkenny counterpart Eoin Murphy saved two penalties and deflected Patrick Maher’s 57th minute shot over the bar.

Despite the ambiguity over the two penalty awards, Barry Kelly had a good match. He maintained order and in that context, let play flow. Kilkenny were unhappy that their frees appeared to come less easily and Richie Power was entitled to be angry when gesticulating that Paddy Stapleton had tugged on his face guard – a red-card offence – but overall it's hard to find serious flaws in the discipline and refereeing.

As for atmosphere and excitement, well Tipp came back from three points down in the 67th minute and 82,179 people were left waiting for Hawk-Eye to tell them whether or not John O’Dwyer’s 97m free had won the All-Ireland.

Was it the best final ever? I don't know, but I don't expect to see another as good even if I do actually live to be 150 – in which case I hope to be wheeled out on the Sunday Game in 2110 to say so. smoran@irishtimes.com